Olympiacos set for gigantic Champions’ League payday
After a phenomenal run in the Champions’ League qualifiers and play-offs, Olympiacos are now set to reap the benefits of qualification to the Group Stage of the club’s premier club competition. Having defeated Viktoria Plzen, Istanbul Basaksehir, and Krasnodar, the Greek side navigated three separate rounds of qualifiers. The reward is not only the prestige of a 19th trip to the Champions’ League for the club, but a gigantic payday.
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The Erythrolefki will receive over €30 million before they even kick a ball in the Group Stage. For advancing to the groups, the payoff is €15.25 million. In addition to that, Olympiacos will garner €13,296,000 thanks to their ten-year ranking in UEFA. The club is currently listed as 31st amongst all European sides and 21st among the 32 entrants in this year’s Champions’ League. That means the total, for now, is an astonishing €28,540,000.
As was the case with AEK last season, Olympiacos will be Greece’s sole representative in the competition. That means they do not have to share the market pool bonus with another Greek team. If PAOK had qualified for the Champions’ League, the market pool would have been split with the Greek champions awarded 55% of the market pool money and Olympiacos 45%. Olympiacos will now receive all of the market pool funds, rumored to be somewhere in the vicinity of €5-10 million (depending on the value of television rights). This would mean that the club could receive upwards of €38 million.
Olympiacos have landed in a difficult group for the competition. Undoubtedly, Group B that features the likes of Bayern Munich, Tottenham, and Red Star Belgrade will be a massive test for the Greek team. Should they be able to pick up some points though then the money will continue to roll in with each Group Stage victory being worth €2.7 million and every draw valued at €900,000. Depending on how they far, Thrylos’ earnings from their participation in the 2019/20 Champions’ League could well exceed €40 million.
